Texas Rangers Blog

ARLINGTON – In addition to announcing the signing of Lance Berkman on Monday to be the team’s primary DH, Rangers GM Jon Daniels also tried to clear up the muddled roster picture.

Here’s the breakdown on what he said:

1. Ian Kinsler, who was at one point likely headed for a move from second to first, will almost certainly remain at second base.

2. Mitch Moreland will get a shot to play first base full-time.

3. Jurickson Profar will get a shot to win a job this spring, but the club is open to returning him to the minor leagues if such an opportunity doesn’t present itself.

“We’ve got a lot of different guys and a lot of different attractive options,” Daniels said shortly after introducing Berkman. “The reality is that we have a really attractive young option in Profar, but we will let things play out. If it happens naturally that things play out that way, that’s usually better. We’re not going to try to manipulate anything.”

In mid-December, Daniels indicated the team was leaning towards having Kinsler do a considerable amount of work during spring training at first base with the idea he could be the team’s regular first baseman. That would have created an opening for Profar and left Moreland in limbo.

Moreland, who will play the majority of the season at the age of 26 in 2013, has never gotten a full-time opportunity. He has been hurt for significant amounts of time in each of the last two years and when healthy, he’s had very few at-bats against left-handed hitters. Moreland is a left-handed hitter, had only 46 at-bats vs. lefties in 2012. He hit .239 with a .280 OBP. For his career, he is a .239 hitter with a .298 OBP and four homers in 177 career at-bats vs. lefties.